Renewed Violence In Kashmir

Ten people, including three Indian soldiers, were killed in separate incidents of violence in India's strife-torn Kashmir region during the past 24 hours, police said on Friday.

"Early this (Friday) morning a group of heavily armed militants fired with automatic weapons at a (Border Security Force) camp at Kalakote," a police official said. "Two soldiers were killed and at least three others were injured."

Kalakote is located in Rajouri district, southwest of Srinagar, the summer capital of Jammu and Kashmir.

The disputed Himalayan region remains at the heart of a military standoff between India and Pakistan. They have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since 1947.

A pro-Pakistan militant group, Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen, claimed responsibility for the attack.

"Our mujahideen attacked the security camp at Kalakote and inflicted heavy causalities on Indian forces," a Jamiat-ul-Mujahideen spokesman said.

A security patrol vehicle was damaged in a landmine blast in Pattan township but none of the passengers were hurt, police said.

Suspected separatist guerrillas killed two activists of Kashmir's ruling National Conference party in Rajwara village near the Pakistan border in Kupwara district northwest of Srinagar, police said. A woman was seriously hurt in the shootout.

Three civilians, two militants and a soldier were killed in separate incidents of violence across the state since Thursday evening, police said.

About a dozen rebel groups are fighting India's rule in Muslim-majority Kashmir, where authorities say about 33,000 people have died in 12 years of rebellion.

Separatists put the death toll closer to 80,000.

Nuclear rivals India and Pakistan are locked in a tense military stand-off after an attack on India's parliament last December, which New Delhi blamed on Pakistan-based Kashmiri separatists.

Close to a million troops have been mobilized on both sides of the border.

India, which controls 45 percent of Kashmir, accuses Pakistan of arming and training militants. Pakistan, which rules over a third of the region, denies the charge and says it only offers moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiri separatists.